The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Various procedures may be performed to repair soft tissue in the body. Generally, it is known to fix the soft tissue to a selected area on the bone by providing a suture through a selected portion of the soft tissue while securing the other end of the suture to the selected area on the bone using a suture anchor.
Suture anchors may be retained in the selected area of the bone via a feature of the suture anchor. In hard bone, however, the suture anchor may not fully engage the bone because the surgeon is not able to apply sufficient force to the suture. Thus, the suture may become loose in the boney structure, which could lead to increased healing times or improper healing. In addition, some of the techniques used to lock the suture to the suture anchor can be labor intensive. Therefore, it may be desirable to provide a method and apparatus for an expanding suture anchor, and a method and apparatus for locking a suture to such a suture anchor.